The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-08-17

Manufacturing Wheat Large Satellite
the Big Bonanza Farms.


Frank Wilkeson in New York Times
The large farms that are now being operated
along the Northern Pacific and Manitoba rail-
roads are but infants when compared with those
of California. but the climate and soil of Dakota
and Manitoba are SO far superior for wheat
growing to those of california that / look at
them with peculiar interest AS | said, there is
no pretense of making pleasant home life for
the workmen who labor on these farms There
is no eating with the farmers family. and no
love-making between handsome harvest hands
and the farmers fair daughter. No walks. no
rides, moonlight boat rowing on winding
rivers romantic capers of any sort:
farm life on these immense farms.
Il is business, and the worknen are
handled as roughly and unfeelingy as iaoorers
engaged in a stone quarry. They are fed well.
They sleep in barns gamers They are
divided into gangs, as to the work they do. IN
the fields, and behind each gang q fore
rides horseback. and keeps them
at work There is no skylarking in these
fields It is hard, continuous work Self
binding machines, drawn by three strong
horses. roll around aud around the wheat
fields. throwing with iron bound bundle
of wheat every ten feet Behind the machines
walk line of shockers, a shocker to each ma
chine. These men have to walk as fast the
horses and bend over and pick up heavy bun
die of wheat every ten feet and carry it to q
shock And behind them, also. rides foreman
that they do their work promptly. And
above them blazes the fiery Dakota
harvest sun. During threshing it Is the same.
The steam thresher never tires The men who
certain number of wagons The men who drive
have to unload their wagons. The men who
feed the straw into the iron-toothed
mouth of the machine have to
feed all that is brought to them.
On side of the machine the grain pours out
of spout and is loaded directly into wagons and
men to do the work. For twelve hours every
day they work laboriously and are driven steadi-
~ by hardfaced foremen 1t is not farming 1t
is the manufacture of wheat which is being
ried
The products of small farms cannot compete
with these so-caled bonanza farms any more
sue cessfullv than the output of village black
smiths shop could compete with that from the
Novelty iron works. think the system is det-
rimental to the best interests of the country,
just monopolies and syndicates are but in
the competitive age in which we live when the
law of the sur iral of the fttest (which means
in industrial pursuits the cheapest producer) is
in full operation, think that these great farms,
which managed manufacturing Industries
are. will be found to be necessary TO enable us
TO hold the consuming markets of the world
They the outgrowth of competition. Where
they established trade languishes. towns
cease to grow. merchants are forced ont of busi
ness. and schoo-houses are empty There are
no children in that land. For month in the
spring and forforty days in the summer and fall
the air hanging over the bonanza farms re-
sounds with the hum of industry. Then all is
silent and the country is desolate until the next
spring. But wheat has been produced cheaply.
though no happiness has followed, it legiti-
ma tely should, to the men who titled the soil
Where do the men who handle these immense
crops of wheat come FRONT That question car-
not be answered accurately. Casselton is a
squalid frontier town. It consists of main
street, which faces the railroad, and which is
built up side only. A back runs
parallel TO the main street. end there are two or
three short and weed grown cross streets. Cas-
seton is dirty, and when / first saw it, two
weeks ago, it was full of dirty, idle men. Amer
leans Scandinavians. and Irishmen swarmed
along it's main street and congregated in foul
smelling crowds around the doors of saloons,
where empty beer kegs afforded seats This
crowd of ragged, dirty. half -drunken men were
migratory harvest tramps, who were waiting
to be hired. Where they come from and whore
they go to is unknown to man. AS harvest APP
proaches they crawl out of freight which
stop at Casselton. They walking along
the dusky. hot highways which lead to this
town. They arrive during the night. They
SLOUGH into town by day. It matters not how
when they arrive they are. with the exception
of the ScaEdinavians, almost invariably dead
broke. dirty, and hungry. About 800 of these
migratory people arrive at Casselton in time to
assist in harvest and threshing. which last about
forty days. They paid 81 per dan So they
earn about $50 each during the Dakota harvest.
They, again excepting the Scancinavians, almost
to man leave Casselron dead broke. They
mysteriously disappear. They are agricultural